In the production of many fluid control devices, such as air conditioning systems and heat exchangers, it is necessary to cut and form numerous pieces of tubing. In forming these tube pieces in the past, a tube cutting machine has been used to first sever the tube into a plurality of pieces of a desired length and a different machine used to perform secondary operations on the precut lengths of tube. Further, a separate machine has been used to perform secondary operations on the ends of the tube, such as to flair the end of the tube or form a bead thereon, with a different machine used to punch apertures in the tube side wall.
Thus, the prior art approach for cutting and forming tube pieces for later use in fluid control systems has been to first cut the tube to length and then to perform the secondary operation on the severed tube piece. Considering that numerous such components must be produced of identical design, this two-stage operation involves substantial time and machinery. Part of the time required in the production of such a tube piece is merely in transporting of the severed tube pieces from first machine to the second machine. Additional time is involved in aligning the severed tube piece in the second machine so that the secondary operation can be performed. Where the tube piece, once one secondary operation has been performed thereon, must then be positioned in a third machine, additional time is required and the expense and the cost of the final product is substantially increased.
While some machines have been used to perform multiple operations on tubing, such as that disclosed in the patent to W. W. Frank, U.S. Pat. No. 3,008,223, issued Nov. 14, 1961, these apparatus have not provided a system for mass producing numerous tube pieces cut to an appropriate length and formed with one or more secondary operations performed thereon on a single machine having the capability of changing both the tube length and the operations performed on the tube in a quick and efficient manner.